"Don't get into news if you want to save the world" = B.S.

No, I'm not advocating that somehow getting into broadcast news will give you superpowers to cure the world's ills nor am I injecting braggadoccio into a profession that is ill-suited to serve as the healer of mankind.

But I'm just plain sick of hearing this line from those with decades of experience in the field as if it's some pithy expression whose speaker believes is a clever way to knock the idealism out of j-school students.

The phrase undercuts the very real ability for news to do something positive. News will never "save the world." Even being the president of the United States will not give you the ability to "save the world." But being a broadcast reporter gives you the power of the microphone, and that power can be used now and then to make small but positive differences. I've done stories on hurricane evacuees who would not have had enough gas money to get home if it hadn't been for our extremely generous viewers contributing to a cause. A positive difference doesn't even have to be monetary; I covered a woman whose side had been left out of a news report from another reporter the day before, and she was so grateful that her side had been told. Our station did a story on a local military post involving a woman being harassed with a noose hanging around a tree outside her house. After the report aired, the military post upped their security around the area, held a town hall to address citizens concerns, and as a result made the entire area safer.

Now I'm not trying to brag about any individual or station accomplishments, I'm just trying to say that in my short time in broadcast, I've had the wonderful opportunity to cover stories that made a positive difference in the subjects' lives.

To say "Don't get into news if you want to save the world" is a statement of cowardice and jaded cynicism, nothing more. The primary function of news is to illuminate and inform your viewers rather than act as a force of goodwill, but it still doesn't mean these two concepts are mutually exclusive.